NBA 2K8 - Too many problems
Let me start by saying that I like sports games and I've played every 2k game made.
When I first bought the game, I played it on the default settings and found it to be way too easy. I was winning games by 30+ points. So I decided to try the harder difficulties and after a while I started playing on "Hall of Fame", which is the hardest the game offers.
Firstly, let me start with what is wrong with this game and why these things make this game unrealistic and no fun:
1. It doesn't really matter what team you're playing. Depending on how lucky you get, they'll all score between 90-100 points a game. I played about 30 games in a season and the low opponent score was 85 and the high was 104. Not a large range.
2. This next reason is the most unrealistic and frustrating aspect of this game, and no matter what I did to tweak the settings, it could not be fixed. When you are on defense, you can pick between various zone defenses (either to shut down the paint or shut down the perimeter). No matter which defensive set you choose, the CPU point guard will end up getting 20+ assists a game. Why? Because 99% of the time down the court if you play a Man or 2-3 Zone defense, which is supposed to shut down the paint, the CPU will run the EXACT SAME PLAY EVERY TIME. The guard calls for a baseline pick and the power forward will run along the baseline while the point guard throws him a pass through 3 defenders and he'll dunk it every time.
NO MATTER WHICH TEAM I PLAYED, THEY ALL DID THIS. EVERY GAME THE CPU HAD ABOUT 70 POINTS IN THE PAINT. YES, 70. 70 OUT OF THEIR 95. Even if you switch the zone defense up or try controlling different defenders, the point guard will pull this pass off every time unless you leave a perimeter guy open, in which case he'll probably knock down a 3. This reason, and this reason alone caused me to stop playing the game.
Even when I manually tweaked the settings so that my "Defensive Awareness" and "Clog Passing Lanes" were 100%, he still pulled this off every time. Even point guards with ratings in the 70's were racking up 20+ assists a game.
I like my sports game to be realistic, and this just kills it.
3. Now, if you can somehow figure out how to combat this, which I cant, there's another big problem. If you run a pick and roll with a center, you can get him open in the paint for a pretty open dunk. However, instead of dunking it, he'll do a 2-foot jump shot or a 1-handed teardrop. Only about 10% of the time will he actually dunk the ball. They also tend to miss these shots or have them blocked quite frequently.
4. The announcers. Every NBA game has a problem with the announcers saying the wrong things at the wrong times. They will frequently comment on how your team is shooting poorly from the free throw line, even if you're at 75+%. If you're at 100%, every time you make a free throw they'll comment with something like, "Well, they're not the best free throw shooting team in the league, but they sure are acting like it today." (Even though in my season, my team was the best free throw shooting team at 88%) Which brings me to another point...
5. Free throws are too easy. You can make them more difficult by adjusting the "Free throw difficulty" setting, but even at 100% I still consistently make 85-90% as a team.
DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! There are tons of other things wrong with the game, but I've run out of room. Take my word for it.Read full review
